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Australians are a nation of sentimentalists at heart, with 1.25 million free-to-air TV viewers opting for romance over sleep in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The royal wedding of Mary Donaldson and Crown Prince Frederik drew a total of 909,332 viewers nationally for SBS and 341,285 viewers for Channel Seven, which aired delayed coverage.

Such audience figures are remarkable for that time of night. But Australia was not alone.

Across Europe, millions were glued to the royal wedding as printing presses also churned out special editions of newspapers and magazines.

The Girl Who Charmed A Nation, declared the front-page headline of The Copenhagen Post above a picture of Mary Donaldson, with the news that a poll had found five out of six Danes were certain she would be a great queen of Denmark.

The poll found Mary had sparked a huge revival in popularity for the Danish monarchy, with the royal family's approval rating jumping to an incredible 82 per cent among Danes.

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When Margrethe became Queen 32 years ago only 42 per cent approved of the monarchy.

The English language newspaper carried glowing stories about Mary and her Australian origins, including breathless coverage of her very first Danish word heard in public "Fiskekutter" - meaning fishing boat.

It also carried a lengthy stylist's guide on how she was transformed from a somewhat windblown real estate agent into a chic and stylish princess.

"It's not expensive to get the Mary look," wrote Nicci Welsh. "She's got good style and that could have a good influence on a lot of people in Copenhagen. Fashions will get a bit more refined and ladylike.

"As long as she's real and keeps grounded - and my experience is that Australians are very grounded - she's going to be fine. Our press isn't out to hate people. It's OK to be a royal."

The Jyllands-Posten asked Danish children what they thought of Mary and got some delightful results:

"When Mary becomes queen they'll raise the speed limit," said one.

"When Mary and Frederik get married, Mary will turn into a pregnant lady."

"Only rich people get invited to royal weddings. Because they don't know anyone else."